I have been printing off increasingly larger rulebooks for various games and when I decided to print a personal reference for Alone Against Fear I realized I would not be able to use my customary saddle stitch-stapling. Comb/coil binding requires a machine and the local print shop charges $6 per book for a basic black coil binding, so I wanted to see if I could figure out something basic for my personal use.
I usually print rulebooks in a standard booklet format, which is 2-sheets to a page and matches the dimensions of a standard mini-binder, but that is bulky when you consider how slim most of these booklets are. I wanted to try blackredfield’s Cheepo Deluxe Duct Tape Book Binding. Obviously this method takes practice to get good at. My first copy was, at best, “serviceable”–the pages hold together but I expect them to start falling apart with a lot of use.
Unfortunately, for this particular book I quickly became annoyed with having to constantly flip to various tables. If I punched it for a mini-binder I could simply remove often-referenced tables and have them on the table. I picked up an adjustable Swingline 3-hole punch for $8. I figured out the Swingline just barely doesn’t center the US Letter half-sheet, so the pages need to be trimmed at the top. So the mini-binder version is even more janky than the duct tape version, but at least I can